


The Elation of Being Alive

by LadyLaguna



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 17:04:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6059154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLaguna/pseuds/LadyLaguna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Celes comforts the anxious little mother she has come to call her lover, and ponders the parallels between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Elation of Being Alive

Spring came early this year. Tiny green tendrils were already appearing in Katarin’s garden, promising beautiful (and delicious!) returns.

Terra was crying.

She and Celes lay in the floor of Terra’s modest home. Celes slid long fingers through curls of iridescent green as Terra’s head sat in her lap. The slightest pout on her lips, Terra hiccuped, silent tears streaking down her face.

Ultimately, this was Celes’ fault. After taking a day trip to Nikeah, she neglected to send pigeon to indicate she arrived safely. While Celes was perfectly capable of caring for herself, and the world was different now… The lack of communication threw the young mother into a fit of worry. Since the Cataclysm she spent her days watching every child leave the front door for water, to feed the dogs, or any number of things, and wrung her hands nervously until they returned. And the moment Celes returned, a confrontation and waterworks began.

The esper girl didn’t cry in front of just anyone. No, she felt safe with Celes, who grew up in the same dark, toxic cesspool that Terra did. Celes understood that constant throb of anxiety that came along with life in Vector. That ever-present fear that any moment you could be snatched up from dinner, or morning drills, or quiet contemplation, and hooked up to machines or forced to kill. To cry, to show weakness, was unwise in Vector. For Celes, it would kill a career. For Terra, the “other,” the consequences could be even more dire. It didn’t relent after they escaped the Empire, or after the world ended. The danger never went away.

Anyway, the slave crown killed all that. Terra was naught but an empty shell some weeks after her release from it, and it took years for her to experience anything akin to “normal” human emotion. The first time Terra cried had been a surprise for Celes. The first time she outright sobbed? Almost a religious experience. Celes was instantly thrown back to that fateful morning when she stood on the edge of the northern cliffs with tears staining her cheeks. It was at that point she knew that the elation of being alive could never overcome her persistent desire to die. Always these two feelings warred within the former general, and even now she fought to reconcile them. But it was getting easier.

It was easier when she looked at Terra. She drew strength from Terra.

Terra was strong. Much stronger than Celes, contrary to the belief of some who knew them both. Celes had no doubts about that. They were both kin in that they were witches. Both murderers of men. But Terra only raised her hand after being bent. Broken by the crown. Celes needed no such coaxing. With clear eyes and head held high, she took innocent lives. Where Terra was granite, Celes was clay. Malleable. Easily battered into shape by a patient enough hand. It took great strength to so readily show weakness. It took great strength, and considerable effort, for Terra to simply let go and cry.

“I’m sorry,” Terra sniffled. Sitting up, she wiped her face with a shaking hand. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Smiling, Celes took her face between two hands. “Nothing’s wrong with you,” she said. “You’re alive. Doesn’t it feel amazing? To grieve. To be sad.” She kissed the wetness from Terra’s cheeks, admiring how prettily they flushed.

Sometimes Terra couldn’t discern sadness from anger from fear, and she overreacted. More often than not, tears were the result. There was no predicting when Terra might fall into this capriciousness. One of the children might sass her. She might receive an upsetting (or uplifting) letter. She might quarrel with Celes over something as small as dirty boots. Then she would cry for an hour, without cease. Later she might lament her loss of control, but Celes loved every minute. Terra was learning how to be _herself_ , and Celes loved her all the more with every fact she uncovered. Possibly, Terra shed tears to make up for every occasion in which she could not do so. For her mother, for the men she killed, for the part she played in the End of the World. Maybe she cried on Celes’ behalf, too. She cried for all of them.

Terra looked to Celes with a hopeless little laugh. “I never know what you mean when you say stuff like that.” She understood how Celes felt on a visceral level, and sympathized with her. But her emotional intelligence was not yet to the point where she could articulate as much in words.

Celes didn’t mind. Words were never her strong suit either. “All I mean to say is that you’re normal,” Celes said. “You’re normal. And I love you. And I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“I love you, too,” Terra answered, her eyes bright as she forced the smallest of smiles. “But you’re still in trouble.”

“Will you spank me?” Celes teased, crawling toward her partner with a predatory glint in her eye.

Scandalized, and completely overlooking the intent in Celes’ posture, Terra cried, “You know that I don’t give spanks!”

“You should try it,” Celes purred, taking Terra’s lips.

She tasted of salt and sweet, so warm and soft. Almost instantly she melted into Celes’ arms, eyes fluttering shut. Celes kissed the sadness away, kissed her until she moaned softly, until she went boneless, until her mind was clear.

For a time Celes simply let Terra occupy herself with more pleasurable things: tracing the cut of her cheekbones with gentle fingers, tangling their limbs together, dusting slow lips over cool skin. Eventually, however, the former general was no longer content to lay passive.

Celes coaxed Terra to lay back, watching her hair splay beneath her. The early afternoon sun streamed through the windows, making her skin glow. Even without the magic in her blood, she still looked ethereal.

For a moment, their eyes met, and they were able to communicate something deeper than they could ever put into words. Celes dipped, strong arms enveloping soft curves, her lips leaving heated trails over the curve of Terra’s shoulders. The girl buried fingers in Celes’ hair, caressing affectionately, drawing down over her neck.

“I love you,” she murmured, happy to say it as often as she could. She understood it now, how it made her feel, and she savored it, Celes knew.

Biting her lip, Celes drew the band of Terra’s bandeau downward, revealing her breasts. “I love you, too,” she breathed, drawing the pads of her thumbs over dark nipples. With a soft exclamation, Terra arched, fingers tightening just so in Celes’ hair. Encouraged, she closed her lips over a sensitive peak, drawing softly on the flesh.

“Ah--!” Terra’s head rolled to the side; she was easy to get going. She loved every moment, which made the act all the more arousing for Celes. Gentle teeth nicked her skin and Celes smiled as she squeaked, flushing all the more darkly.

Celes shifted, settling between Terra’s legs, and she spread them for her without hesitation. As Celes’ tongue drew heated circles on Terra’s chest, her fingers slid downward. She caressed Terra’s belly, reveling in how peaceful life was causing it to soften. Down, down, to the curve of Terra’s thighs, kneading teasingly. Terra spread her legs a little further, eager.

“Am I still in trouble?” Celes asked, eyes rising to meet those of her lover.

Terra bit her lip, fighting the smile that wanted to form on her face. She nodded, resolute, and Celes shook her head in reply. “I’ll try harder.”

Her fingertips tickled the inside of Terra’s thighs and she giggled, the smile finally breaking free. As her hands moved to block Celes’s attack, the blonde shifted further down, evading her. Warm, calloused palms spread the girl’s thighs even moreso, causing the velvet of her skirt to shift upward. It bunched around her hips and she shimmied, watching in quiet anticipation.

Biting her lip, Celes met Terra’s eyes. With a smile, she dragged the material of Terra’s panties aside. And waited.

“Celes,” Terra whined, rolling her hips needily. She was already wet, Celes could see, though it rarely took much effort to get her to that point. The smell of her made Celes groan, and she decided to end the teasing.

Her lips covered Terra’s slit, tongue dragging slowly upward to circle her clit. Terra mewled, head rolling backward. For a few moments, Celes teased her with the lightest touches along the tip of her tongue, until Terra’s voice rose an octave. As her hips arched upward, Celes began to taste her in earnest. Long, hard strokes gave way to quicker ones, interspersed with the occasional dips downward, to tease the girl’s entrance. Soon Terra had buried fingers in Celes’ hair, urging her to keep going.

Celes moaned low in her throat. The taste of her lover was enough to make her throb; in response, she closed her lips over Terra’s clit, drawing slow and hard.

“Oh--!!” Terra’s hips lifted clear off of the ground, and Celes took the opportunity to shift to the side. She slid two fingers deep within that wet heat, curling, feeling Terra clench around her.

“Celes-- please--!!” Terra’s fingers tightened in blonde waves, pulling insistently, and Celes gasped. She began to thrust, deep and hard, her tongue returning to that bundle of nerves. Faster, harder, her tongue moved with the rhythm of Terra’s hips. The girl’s moans became clipped cries. Her muscles tensed. For a moment, Celes was sure she could still feel the magic clinging to her skin, coursing through her veins. The two of them came together into some coherent whole, some fond memory of past greatness, or unfulfilled potential.

That moment hung in the air, and the sweetest, longest sound of pleasure left Terra’s lips. She climaxed, her wetness coating Celes’ hand, body milking those fingers for what seemed like ages.

Finally, she stilled, and Celes withdrew. She slid her tongue over wet lips, the taste of her lover still clinging there. Sitting back, she watched Terra for a moment. Her hair was a riot of curl about her brow, bare chest heaving, wet thighs still spread in an almost wanton fashion. She was beautiful, bathing in the sunshine and her afterglow, eyes dark and unfocused.

“I adore you,” Celes breathed, sliding to rest beside her. She pulled Terra, warm and boneless, into her arms. Her own arousal was an insistent press, but it was such a pleasant sort of torture. She’d deal with that later. For now, she reveled in the knowledge that her anxious little mother was completely at peace-- for at least a few moments.

Terra returned to herself soon enough, peppering feather-light kisses across Celes’s neck.

“Promise you’ll send a pigeon next time,” she whispered, wanting to make it clear that Celes couldn’t erase her transgression so easily.

Smiling, Celes pressed a kiss to her brow. “Of course.”


End file.
